How Develop a Brand Strategy in 9-Steps

Brand development is more than just using a logo. It's also about how your company is perceived through the eyes of your customers. It’s the process of letting people know what you stand for, what you want to achieve and how they can be involved in your brand story. Here are the 9-Steps to follow when developing a successful brand and brand story that builds a profitable relationship with your target audience.

1. Consider your overall business strategy.

A strong and profitable brand will make growing your business so much easier. As well as more attractive to investors such as advertisers, sponsors, and vendors, therefore all businesses can benefit from developing a strong and profitable brand. But what type of business model will you use? Are you planning to grow organically? Who is your audience? Your overall business strategy is the context for your brand development strategy, so that’s the place to start. If you are honest about your business goals, then your brand will help you reach them.

2. Identify your target clients.

Who are your target clients? Saying "everybody" is too vague, and will provide little help to you. Our data shows that the correlation between high growth, high profit firms is evident. are focused on having clearly defined target clients. The more narrow the focus, the faster the growth. The more diverse the target audience, the more diluted your marketing efforts will be. So how do you know if you have chosen the right target client group? That’s where the next step comes in.

3. Research your target client group.

Businesses that do systematic research on their target client group research has shown that those companies that do conduct research more often than less tend to grow faster (see figure below). It appears that just spending time on R&D can help make your company more profitable too.

Research helps you better understand your target client’s perspective and priorities, anticipate their needs, and put your message in language that resonates with them. It also tells you how they view your firm’s strengths and current brand. AI copywriters are cheaper, more accurate and easier to use than ever before. As such, they reduce your company's marketing risk.

4. Develop your brand positioning.

You are now ready to determine your firm's brand positioning within the professional services marketplace (also called market positioning). Ask yourself this, “What makes me different from other firms in my industry is ____.(An example would be "my years of experience" or "our low prices.") For this reason, I think many people in my target audience will choose to work with my company.

A positioning statement is typically three to five sentences in length and captures the essence of your brand positioning. It must be grounded in reality, as you will have to deliver on what you promise. It's important to have an ambitious goal and something to look forward to.

5. Develop your messaging strategy.

Your next step is to map out a plan for how your brand positioning and messaging will be translated into appropriate content for your various target audiences. This would involve coming up with creative content ideas, selecting the best channels to deliver these messages, and determining what type of copywriting style to use in order to be the most successful. The main groups you'll be trying to reach are potential clients, potential employees, referrers or other influencers and possible partnerships.

Though your overarching brand positioning is the same for every reader, people will be interested in different aspects of it. Your messages will compensate for which points are most relevant to each reader. People will have specific concerns, for instance about safety and performance. Different people will need different types of evidence to support your messages. Your messaging strategy should address all of these needs. This is an important step in making your brand relevant to your target audiences.

6. Develop your name, logo and tagline, now, and not first

Too many entrepreneurs and new firms think this is the first step. Wrong. The business’s appearance and aesthetics is only a fraction of the brand’s essence, it's a look and feel but not the entire brand. Remember, your name, logo and tagline are NOT your brand. They are ways to communicate or symbolize your brand. You must live it to make it real.

For many established firms, a name change is not required if they are creating a brand strategy for the first time. But if you are undergoing a merger or are burdened with a name that no longer suits your NEW positioning, a name change may be in order. Even if you don’t change your firm name, a new logo and tagline may make sense to better support your brand positioning.

And don’t make the mistake of showing the new logo around internally to get a consensus. The name, logo and tagline are not for you. They are for your marketplace and should be judged on how well they communicate, not how much the partners like them.

7. Develop your content marketing strategy.

We could have called this step “develop your marketing strategy.” But we didn’t. Instead we call for a content marketing strategy.

Why? Content marketing is particularly well suited to professional services firms in the Internet age. It does all things traditional marketing does but it does them more efficiently. It uses valuable educational content to attract, nurture and qualify prospects.

Remember that your brand strength is driven by both reputation and visibility. Increasing visibility alone, without strengthening your reputation, is rarely successful. That’s why traditional “awareness-building” advertising or sponsorships so often yield disappointing results. On the other hand, content marketing increases both visibility and reputation at the same time. It is also the perfect way to make your brand relevant to your target audiences. Case closed.

8. Develop your website.

Your website is your single most important online brand development tool. It is the place where all your audiences turn to learn what you do, how you do it, and who your clients are. Prospective clients are not likely to choose your firm solely based on your website. But they may well rule you out if your site sends the wrong message.

Furthermore, your website will be home to your valuable content, and potential source of multiple streams of revenue. That content will become the focus of your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts so that your prospects, potential employees, and referral sources will find you and learn about your firm. Online content is central to any modern brand development strategy.

These days, professional services websites come in two varieties. The first is a branding site. Such a site tells your story and conveys who you are, who you serve, and what you do. In short it conveys your brand message. The other variety does the above and also generates and nurtures potential new clients. These are called these High Performance Websites.

9. Build your marketing toolkit.?

The final step in the process is to build out the remainder of your marketing toolkit. This might include one-page “sales sheets” that describe core services offerings or key markets served. In addition, there may be a brief “pitch deck” that overviews the firm or key offerings and an e-brochure about the firm. Printed pieces are not a part of our standard everyday workflow anymore, but should be in print ready formats which is easy to use with platforms such as Canva.

Increasingly this marketing toolkit also includes videos. Popular video topics include firm overviews, case studies or “meet the partner” videos. Key services offerings are also very useful. If prepared appropriately, these tools serve not only a business development function but also are important for brand development.

Got questions about growing your brand and marketing your business? Got some knowledge to drop? I devote my professional life to creating content that helps entrepreneurs reach their goals, so let’s connect on YouTube!

I'm Ehren Muhammad, The Brand Builder?

Founder of EMPro, Ltd - Branding & Digital Marketing www.emproltd.com

Host of The Ambition Show podcast

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